آرت جميل
Islands of Heritage: Conservation and Transformation in Yemen
Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not only to birds, reptiles and plants found nowhere else on earth, but also to a rich cultural history and the endangered Soqotri language. Within a decade, this Indian Ocean archipelago went from being among the most marginalised regions of Yemen to one that is promoted for its outstanding global value.
Examining the multiple notions of heritage in play for twenty-first-century Soqotra, Peutz narrates how everyday Soqotrans came to assemble, defend and mobilise their cultural and linguistic heritage. These efforts, which diverged from outsiders' focus on the island's natural heritage, ultimately added to Soqotrans' calls for political and cultural change during the Yemeni Revolution. Islands of Heritage shows that far from being merely a conservative endeavour, the protection of heritage can have profoundly transformative, even revolutionary effects. Grassroots claims to heritage can be a potent form of political engagement with the most imminent concerns of the present: human rights, globalisation, democracy and sustainability.
Hardcover
368 pages
ISBN: 9781503606395
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published November 2018
Winner of the 2019 Middle East Section (MES) Book Award, sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA)
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